Friday, November 24, 2006

Jalalabad - Animal Life

When we went to the ANA complex the first morning we were there, I was struck by the beauty of it all. As I mentioned in my “not long-winded” previous blog on how green it was, it was such a beautiful location. The next thing that struck me after how green it was was the “noise.” I was actually hearing birds sing. It’s something I haven’t heard in a long time. We don’t have many birds here at Blackhorse – I don’t’ think ravens sing, do they? So I just stood there listening to the birds sing.

Then I noticed that there were not just your ordinary birds in the mix, but there were actually parrots. Yep, real live, wild parrots. It was so cool to see them flying between the trees.

Slag, who is the commander of the ETT’s down there told us that at one of the FOB’s (forward operating bases) there’s a monkey that lives there. He said the monkey will get down on the ground and play with the FOB dogs. He said it was fun to watch. One day Slag said he was kneeling down and the monkey came and jumped on his back. Without missing a beat Ken said, “hard to kick that heroin habit, heh?” I guess you had to be there but it was funny.

I’m told that in the summer there are snakes and spiders everywhere. The snakes wouldn’t have bothered me but I’m glad that the spiders were out of season. HATE, HATE, HATE spiders.

Before I close, let me just say that the ANA complex there had the most beautiful grounds. Acres of trees and recessed gardens. I know that if I were stationed there I would spend many an evening in the trees just sitting there enjoying the peace and quiet. Ken would have his lawn chair out sipping a cool beverage of his choice. That sounded like a good suggestion as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I hate, hate, hate snakes!!! To think of them just roaming around everything gives me the creeps. They do that in the Philipines too I hear. You can just take your shoe off and smash the biggest spider made. I'll never understand how anyone can be afraid of spiders verses snakes. Though 2 or my daughters are deathly afraid of the little buggers too. Go figure! Jacquie Six

Scared of Spiders? When a person screams at the top of their lungs - much like being kidnapped- such as our youngest daughter, the poor thing sees 8 of it. It has to die instantly. A snake, on the other hand, is just plain creepy. Ask Trooper if he gets back into his house soon after throwing a rubber snake on his wife while she is mowing the lawn. Said wife hating snakes beyond all hate of anything. Who carries housekeys around the yard? Not him!!!